Google Maps & Map Maker

Google Maps

This is what most people think of when you talk about a "Google Map." This is the basemap that appears when you do a Google Search for a location or when you navigate on your phone using Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions. The Google basemap is public and everyone sees the same information when you zoom to a location (the map appears in different languages at different locations, but this is a location-specific default setting). You can embed a zoomed in location on the Google Map in your website, and you can edit the basemap using Map Maker (see below - the information you add will be reviewed before it is either accepted or rejected). But you can't create a custom layer on a Google Map; instead you must use one of the other geotools to create custom layers such as Google Earth, Maps Engine or Fusion Tables. If you have a Google account and are logged in, Google Maps will save your searches in your account for future use; you can also save a search and send a URL to a colleague to show them a particular place on the basemap. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe linked to the map below on their tribal website.

Google Map Maker

Map Maker allows you to submit edits and additions to the Google basemap. The edits that you submit must be reviewed, and if they are accepted they will appear on the basemap. The map below is an example of an edit that I recently submitted (and it was accepted); the boat ramp at below the Turner Bridge in Kansas City (the road and parking lot edits I submitted are still pending review). To learn how to submit material to the public basemap (which also provides driving directions) go to Map Maker Help.There are reasons why Tribes may wish to edit or add to the basemap; to provide the location of an IHS clinic, Tribal Headquarters, a tribally owned casino or business, roads or paths (designate public or private, which increases or decreases the amount of traffic routed down the road), park boundaries, etc. These are things that you want to share with the general public, not things of a sensitive nature that you wish to keep private. You can also add information about a business (hours of operation, phone numbers, etc.) using Google My Business (you must be the owner to use this).